Article of manufacture



April 1959 D. A. GARDINER, JR., ET AL 2,880,860

ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE Filed April 11, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS D.A. GARDINER JR. JOHN S. RHOADES ATTORNEY April 7, 1959 D. A. GARDINER, JR., ET AL 2,380,850

I ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE Filed April '11, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS D.A.GARDINER JR, JOHN s. RHOADES 2o W ATTORNEY United States Patent O ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE Donald A. Gardiner, Jr., Silver Spring, and John S.

Rhoades, Woodacres, Md., assignors to Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation, Oakland, Calif., a corporation of Delaware Application April 11, 1956, Serial No. 577,532

6 Claims. (Cl. 20658) This invention relates to foil containers. In particular the invention relates to a novel merchandizing package in roll form for foil containers which have particular utility in the culinary arts.

During recent years, extensive use has been made of metal .foils, such as aluminum foil by the householder. This foil is used for wrapping various articles, as decorations and in particular as a liner for pans, ovens and the like wherein the heat conductive and reflective properties of the foil as well as its self-sustaining rigidity is productive of many and varied applications.

One principal application of foil has been its use as a disposable broiler pan. In this instance the semi-rigid foil is formed into a finished rigid pan. These pans are usually placed in a box in a stacked or nested arrangement and then sold to the customer. The box or package for the foil broiler pans or the like usually is bulky and does not lend itself to convenient storage. Because of the stacking arrangement between the pans in this way they are not susceptible to easy access when the time comes to use the same. Since the box containing the pans is unsightly and takes up a large amount of space, the householder will be inclined to store the pans and the box they come in in a very inconvenient place.

Another important factor is the cost of the finished pans to the householder. This cost consideration has been a deterrent to the use of such disposable pans. It is obvious of course that each. operation needed to fabricate the finished product in turn adds to the final purchase price.

Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide a novel merchandizing package for metal foil specifically adapted for formation into a culinary article.

A further object of the invention is to produce a novel merchandizing package for foil such as aluminum foil, either coated or uncoated, from which the foil material may be dispensed easily and conveniently.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a roll of foil material having novel features facilitating the formation of disposable pans therefrom for many and varied uses.

Another object of the invention is to provide an aluminum foil merchandizing package including a roll of foil having provision for facilitating the dispensing of particular sized segments or sections therefrom, from which sections unique disposable pans may be readily fabricated by the ultimate consumer. 7

Still a further object of the invention is to produce a novel merchandizing package for foil, which is reasonable in cost and conveniently compact so that it can be easily stored in a minimum amount of space.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a unique merchandizing package of aluminum foil in roll form either coated or uncoated from which may be readily shaped a plurality of individual disposable containers. 1

These and other objects of the present invention may be accomplished by providing a strip of foil of light metal such as aluminum, with a series of transverse corrugations and equally spaced lines of demarcation and further with longitudinally extending means disposed closely adjacent to the longitudinal marginal edges of the foil to facilitate the bending of the edges to form a receptacle with the strip of foil thus formed then being wound into a roll. The material thus formed could be contained 'within a conventional roll dispensing package and be readily removed therefrom in individual, properly sized segments or sections, the individual sections can then be readily formed into individual receptacles.

Referring now to the detailed description which follows, the accomplishment of the objects specified will be apparent when consideration is given to the accompanying drawings, wherein,

Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view through a container showing the manner in which the rolled foil material would be packaged,

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a roll of foil material, a portion of which is unwrapped to show the appearance thereof prior to bending or forming of a segment thereof by the consumer into a disposable pan;

Figure 3 is a partial cross-section through a roll of foil showing a variation in the edge construction thereof;

Figure 4 is a partial sectional view of the roll of foil showing another variation in the construction and details thereof;

Figure 5 is a partial plan view of the embodiment dis closed in Figure 4, and

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a finished pan or container made from a section torn from the foil roll shown in Figure 2.

Considering now Figure 1, it may be seen that the roll of foil 1 is inserted within a generally rectangular and elongated box 2. The box 2 is of more or less conventional form being provided with a flapped cover formed integrally with the rear wall. The flap on the cover fits within and against the front wall and the rolled material may be passed through a slot 3 provided in either top or front of the box, as also may be conventional in the art.

Referring to Figure 2, it may be seen that the foil roll when unwrapped is comprised of an elongated continuous strip or sheet preferably of from .001" to .004 in thickness. This strip of foil is preferably provided with a series of cross-corrugations 10, comprised of crests 11, either V-shaped or flat topped, as desired, and valleys 12, throughout its entirety and having a length which may be for convenience of 25, 50 or feet or any other desired dimension. The purpose of corrugating the foil will become apparent subsequently.

Also extending transversely of the length of the roll of corrugated sheet at equally spaced increments are a plurality of perforation lines or spaced demarcation lines 5 providing weakened areas in said sheet or web, which extend from edge to edge of the sheet and which are disposed perpendicularly to these edges. These lines serve to divide the rolled material into a plurality of segments or sections 4 which are weakly connected at the perforated lines 5 such that any section or segment 4 may be removed easily from its next adjacent section by hand;

The separation of a section 4 from an adjacent section may be accomplished by the drawing out, through the slot 3, of a given amount of the corrugated rolled foil until a perforation line is passed a sufficient distance through the slot 3. At this time the section emerging from the slot may be pressed against the outer surface of the carton 1 and the completely exposed section torn quickly and easily along the perforated line 5 or the line of weakness to remove the fully exposed section 4 from. therest of the roll proper. At the same time, a sutficient lengthof thenextadjacent-section.willbe exposed to en. able it to be grasped by hand, when this section is to be used at a subsequent time.

-The"-detached section 4 of the foil rollg'euerally comprises'a'rcctangular sheet' of a Convenient size and may be used;for example, as a tray which, when placed directly in an oven or broiler or in contact with a flame will support a piece of cut meat or other foodstuff.

Since the section 4 is corrugated, it will be seen that the foodstuff placed thereon will rest on the crests 11 or plateaus where flat topped corrugations might be used, of the corrugations 10, while the valleys 12 between the crests will be spaced below. the lower surface of the foodstuff whereby greases, juices, moisture and the like may drip cbrdraindown'v and becaught in the valleys 12 either for subsequent use or disposal, as. the case may be.

\ .Since one object inusing the foil article ofthe type described is to confine incidentally produced liquids, etc., resulting from cooking Within or on the foil sheet and thus eliminate the necessity of cleaning hard to handle utensils and receptacles, it is apparent that the juices, moisture, etc., caught in the valleys. 12 must be completely entrapped to prevent spillage and/or overflow over the marginal edges 13 of the section 4.

As would be apparent to a consumer the obvious solution to this latter mentioned problem would be to bend or foldthe marginal edges 13 upwardly and inwardly toward the crests 11 of corrugations thus forming an elongated vertical wall on the section 4 which would be perpendicular to the direction in which the corrugations extend. .However, the presence of the corrugations 10 serves to inhibit this transverse folding conveniently which, if accomplished by the consumer, would be time consuming as well as produce, at best, a distorted makeshift result.

Accordingly, to facilitate folding of the edges 13 there isadvantageously provided adjacent each marginal edge of the roll a means facilitating the folding thereof. This means maytake the form of a line or demarcation which would weaken the foil at a suitable distance from the edge. This distance is at least equal to the vertical distance between the lowermost point of .valleys 12 and the uppermost portion ofcrestsll of the transverse corrugations 10.

It will be appreciated that the edge demarcation lines 6 would extend for the entire length ofthe roll of material 1 such that each removable section 4 would contain such lines when removed from the roll.

Thus folding of marginal edges 13 is greatly facilitated such .that. the consumer may quickly and easily fold upwardly'the edges 13 and a portion 16 of the ends of each section as; indicated in Figures 2 and 6 thus forming a liquid holding, generally rectangular receptacle 20 of sturdyjfoilwhich may be, used to confine the products of cooking in one inexpensive convenient disposable container. Because of the inherent rigidity of the foil and its characteristic of retaining its shape and form after being bent th e sides 13 and end portions 16 will remain in an upright position after being bent upward.

vInetfect then the instant invention provides a series of blanks for forming receptacles all of which are merchandized in a convenient roll package.

It is contemplated that other forms of marginal edges 13 may be provided for the blanks or sections 4. For example, in Figure 3, the edges 13 are shown as being folded upon the section 4 in rather loose fashion whereby the folded back portion may be lifted in the direction of the arrow to form a vertical wall. These edges would be folded prior to corrugation of the foil sheet.

A further arrangement is shown in Figures 4 and 5. In this latter arrangement several features are apparent. First,'since the strip of foil iscorrugated it is to be noted that the provision of flat edges is rather diflicult. This is due to the fact that the material would have to be drawn rather severely at the point where the corrugations would merge with the 'flat surface. This result in turn is caused by thefactthat for agiven lengthofedge there would be a greater length of material required to form corrugated material of the same overall length. Hence, the cormgated portion would have to be stretched or drawn out of a given length of material. This weakens the foil material considerably.

On the other hand, if as shown in Figure 5, the marginal edges 13 arecorrugated by means of similar corrugations, with a' ratio for example of two small corrugations 14 for every large corrugation 10, and with the former being somewhat shallower than the latter, 'then the problem of length is eliminated and the drawing of the material is substantially reduced. Thus, a demarcation line is formed and the edges may be readily folded in the desired direction.

Thus, it is within the contemplation of the instant invention that several arrangements for facilitating the folding of the.longitudinal marginal edges of the rolled material beipr'ovided All of. these arrangements may be readily applied to the strip of foil material during rolling, along with the corrugations 10 and lines of perforations or spaced demarcation lines 5 providing weakened areas in saidsheet or web prior to coiling of the material in rolls for insertion into the containers 2. Considering brieflythe base stockmaterial, the foil may be plain or embossed foil. Where the foil is emb'ossed it will be reinforced and stiffened. This reinforcement in turn. will add to the stiffness and rigidity of the container formed therefrom. Although other'materials such assuitably treated papers or foil and paperlaminates may be used for the base stock material, plain foil is preferred where the receptacle formed therefrom is to be used as a cooking container. In the case of foil, a base stock of ranging from .001" to .004 in thickness and of full hard temper would be a desirable material from which to preferably. fabricate the rolled product, though it will be appreciated that intermediate tempers between soft :and .full; hard might'prove advantageous in some instances. L

Further, the'container formed from the rolled blank may havev other uses than those specifically noted herein.

The merchandizing package 2 in which the rolled foil product is sold to the consumer may, if desired, be provided'with'means for attaching the same to a wall or other surface with the package 2.then serving as a convenient dispenser.

It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made in the instant invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is: t

1. ,A merchandizing package of disposable receptacles in roll form comprising a rolled-up Web .of corrugated, thin, yet self-sustaining aluminum foil, said rolled-up web being provided with spaced 'demarkation lines providing weakened areas in saidweb, said lines of demarkation extending. transversely across, the rolled-up web from edge-to-edge thereof and parallel to the axis about which the web. is rolled, whereby removal of selected portions of the rolled-up web in the form of quadrangular corrugated sheetsis. facilitated, said rolled-up web being provided further with means traversing the length thereof transversely of said corrugations and in closely associated parallel relationship with, respect-to the edges of the rolled-up web whereby. allot the marginal edges of the removed quadrangular sheet portions may be bent upwardly, fromthe plane of the sheet and will remain so displaced to form self-sustaining side walls of a receptacle.

2. A merchandizingpackage of disposable receptacles in roll form as defined in claim 1 wherein said rolled-up web iscomprised of aluminum foil of a thickness ranging between .001 and-.004".

3. A merchandizing package of disposable receptacles in roll form as defined in'claim'l wherein the means traversing the length of the web closely adjacent the edge portions thereof is comprised of folded back portions of the web defining a double thickness of material, the folded back portions being bendable to a generally upright position.

4. A merchandizing package of disposable receptacles in roll form as defined in claim 1 wherein said means traversing the length of the web closely adjacent the edges thereof comprises a plurality of separate corrugations of shallower depth and greater number than the main corrugations of said rolled-up Web.

5. A merchandizing package of disposable receptacles in roll form comprising a dispensing carton, a rolled-up web of corrugated thin, yet self-sustaining aluminum foil disposed within said carton for dispensing therefrom, said rolled-up web being provided with spaced demarkation lines providing weakened areas in said web, said lines of demarkation extending transversely across the rolledup web from edge-to-edge thereof and parallel to the axis about which the Web is rolled, whereby removal of selected portions of the rolled-up web in the form of 20 quadrangular corrugated sheets is facilitated. said rolledup web being provided further with means traversing the length thereof transversely of said corrugations and in closely associated parallel relationship with respect to the edges of the rolled-up web whereby all of the marginal edges of the removed quadrangular sheet portions may be bent upwardly from the plane of the sheet and will remain so displaced to form self-sustaining side walls of a receptacle.

6. A merchandizing package of disposable receptacles in roll form as defined in claim 5 wherein said rolled-up web is formed of aluminum foil having a thickness of from .001 to .004".

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 728,608 Phillips May 19, 1903 2,262,086 Barrow Nov. 11, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS 719,191 France Nov. 14. 1931 

